Origins

A young boy finds something that completely flips his world around.

Adam stood silently, the door to his father’s study looming over him. Rain crashed so loudly upon the roof that he could not hear his own breath.

His cheek stung as he remembered his father’s actions from earlier that afternoon.

There are things you aren’t ready to understand, his father had said after striking Adam. Do not enter this room ever again. Adam had fled crying from the study.

In all his 13 years, he had never seen his father act so coldly. He sat in his room for the rest of the day, letting curiosity fester within him like a disease. What could possibly be in the study that would prompt Adam’s father to punish him so severely for simply wandering inside?

When night had fallen, Adam waited to hear his father close the bedroom door and turn off the lights. After 100 breaths, he softly made his way back to the study.

Now he stood in the darkness, the door to the study daring him to disobey his father and satisfy the curiosity that raged within him. Adam bit back his fear, took one deep breath, and slowly turned the handle on the door.

The windowless study was in absolute darkness until Adam lit one of the matches he’d brought along. The tiny flame cast impossibly long shadows that danced upon the walls, mimicking the movements of a person. A bead of sweat ran down Adam’s neck as he was gripped by fear.

He took twenty deep breaths and gathered his thoughts. Adam’s eyes slowly swept the room, begging for anything to catch his attention. He fixated on a dark black folder that stood out against his father’s oak desk. The folder was partially tucked away behind some books that were written in a language Adam had never seen before.

He took the folder from the desk and studied it. A large white X was the only marking to be found anywhere on the folder. Curiosity flared within the boy as he slowly opened the folder.

A single paper rested inside.

Adam studied his birth certificate, baffled as to why his father kept it in the strange black folder.

Then he realized that something was wrong.

The lines that should have been occupied by the names of his parents displayed two names that Adam had never seen before. The color drained from his face as his mind struggled to comprehend.

His thoughts slammed to a halt as an ice cold voice behind him spoke.

“I thought I told you not to enter this room.”